Blog

Leadership, like many other soft topics which are classed as critical 21st Century skills is a tough nut to crack. There is only so much theory one can learn about a soft skill before you need to bite the bullet and head out to the real world to practice your new found knowledge. But therein lies a challenge; to practice leadership skills you need people to lead and said people may not be immediately available. And to top it off, if you turn out to be a poor leader, you risk widespread damage amongst the team.

A ground-breaking new game for leadership training is being launched at leading L&D exhibition; World of Learning.

The 3D, online, multiplayer game is set on a tropical island, in which players must work together, communicating only by instant messaging to solve puzzles and succeed. Each level challenges players on different leadership skills such as problem solving and negotiation, and switches the lead role between players allowing each a chance to shine.

Now I have the characters completed the final stage is to optimise the characters to work in game.

I worked at 300 dpi so we can print these characters large and to a high quality, this is useful for the marketing department. As we have huge files it’s easy to alter the image to a lower resolution. BUT keep loads of backups and don't overwrite your original Photoshop file! You can always make a folder called original files. It doesn’t hurt to have a copied back up, in fact it's advised.

Use silhouettes to get your mind thinking in a way that strengthens your characters. When posing a character, it’s a good idea to act them out, in your head or physically. Take reference photos; posing helps you understand the stance and personality better. You can always pose a sketching Doll, or a Biped in 3ds Max, to get a better idea of shape and action lines too.

Language Learning Apps

Just a few weeks till the summer holiday season! Where is everyone jet setting off to? Where ever you plan to holiday this year be sure to grab some local phrases before you go! Ordering your dinner or even just drinks

Sterotypes in the design process

Always reference from real life: I restricted myself to certain nationality groups. I was aiming to capture a typical Slovenian/Italian etc face type; taking into consideration features such as eye shape, skin tone, hair colour, etc. Often determining these traits are big generalisations and not factual but it is good to have recognisable traits in your characters so people more easily associate with the nationality, age group, occupation etc your character belongs too.

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned on our blog an exciting new project we are working on - Is IT Green?. Our resident 3D/2D Artist Nicky Rhodes has wrote about her experience on this project. In the coming weeks she will be giving tips and advice, discussing her process and more on the creative side of game design!

In 2000, the Mental Health Foundation started ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’. The first issue focused on was ‘Stigma’. Since then there’s been Exercise, Sleep, Anxiety and many more. This year the focus is on Mindfulness; a mind – body approach to wellbeing.

Did you know one in four of us will suffer from a mental illness every year.

This very brief introduction to TGR will touch on what it is and how it can be used in layout and design. I have also created a free vector pack you can download and use which may help you start including TGR in your own work..